The Agency expands into East Bay with new Berkeley office

The Agency is expanding its East Bay presence with a new office in North Berkeley that will have a soft opening this week, according to the brokerage’s president, Rainy Hake Austin.

The Beverly Hills-based firm sees the down market as a good opportunity to expand in the Bay Area, she said.

“While others were merging, morphing and disappearing, we had an opportunity to set ourselves apart,” she said. 

The opening comes several years after The Agency launched its East Bay presence in Alamo. 

Over the last six months, The Agency has added about 25 agents across Oakland and Berkeley, who have been utilizing the Alamo office until the new space was secured.

“We had so many agents raise their hand to join before the office even opened and I think that is quite uncommon,” she said.

She said that the company’s expansion in Silicon Valley also helped its recruitment effort because “there’s a lot of reciprocity” between the two markets as many people work in the South Bay, but live in the less-expensive East Bay. 

Though the company is based in Southern California, Austin said many of the leadership team, including herself, are from Northern California and the company is planning to expand further throughout the area. In addition to the two East Bay offices, they already have space in Sonoma, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Woodside and Carmel. 

Shortly after Austin joined The Agency in 2020, Jeff Samuels came over to The Agency from Compass’ Oakland office. Austin, who runs the Alamo office, credited his move with beginning the chain reaction that led them to pick up so many new agents with minimal outreach. 

Though the new office at 1619 Shattuck Avenue in North Berkeley is only 1,850 square feet, Samuels said the firm wasn’t looking for anything larger and that the space is in a prime location. 

“You have to give agents and clients a reason to want to come into the office,” Austin said. “Giant offices just become storage warehouses for agents’ things.” 

Veteran East Bay agent Helene Barkin made the move from Compass to The Agency last spring and cited “the warm atmosphere and collaborative spirit” as well as the “responsive” leadership as some of her main reasons for making the move. 

The Agency is the second firm to open an office targeting the East Bay over the last month, trailing Vanguard’s move. In just the first three weeks of April, average sales price across Oakland, Piedmont and Berkely was up 13 percent year-over-year, and closed volume was up 10 percent, according to The Agency data.

“It’s only growing from here,” she said. “This is definitely the tip of the iceberg.”